View Tom Dempsey's favorite images of Peru: Huayna Picchu rises over Machu Picchu, the "lost city of the Incas." Workers cross the ancient salt pans of Salinas in the Urubamba Valley. Trekkers cross the outlet stream of Lake Carhuacocha under pyramidal peaks in the Cordillera Huayhuash. Lenticular clouds loom over the highest peak in the Amazon River Watershed, Yerupaja Grande. Blue paint fades on a door in Huaraz. Giant lupines (Lupinus weberbauerii) bloom below Mount Taulliraju, in Tingopampa Valley near Punta Union Pass, Huascaran National Park, Cordillera Blanca Range. See Cuzco sunset, llama, hummingbirds, snake, campesino children. Plus much more....

View Tom Dempsey's images of Cuzco (2003, 2000), Urubamba Valley, and the Lares Trek (2000) in Peru, South America.

View Tom Dempsey's images of the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, South America.

View Tom Dempsey's images of trekking the Cordillera Huayhuash Circuit July 6-16, 2014 in Peru, South America. Our family group of eight Dempseys tented for 10 nights at high altitude and walked for 9 days over passes up to 5000 meters or 16,500 feet elevation. Each day was a revelation of snowy peaks, lakes, local campesinos (country people), scenic campsites, native plants and flowers. Aventura Quechua company of Huaraz organized our guided tent trek with loads carried by donkeys.

View Tom Dempsey's images of trekking the Cordillera Huayhuash C-shaped Route in 2003, in Peru, South America. See high snowy peaks, lakes, people, campsites, and llamas. Aventura Quechua company of Huaraz organized our guided tent trek with loads carried by donkeys.

View Tom Dempsey's images of trekking Around Alpamayo in 10 days, June 25-July 4, 2014 in the Cordillera Blanca, Andes, Peru, South America. Each day we crossed one or more breathtaking mountain passes, as high as 15,950 feet or 4830 meters elevation at Caracara Pass. Aventura Quechua company of Huaraz organized our guided tent trek with loads carried by donkeys.

View Tom Dempsey's images of Huaraz, Chavin, and trekking the Santa Cruz Valley in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru, South America. Aventura Quechua company of Huaraz organized our guided tent trek with loads carried by donkeys.

In the Cordillera Blanca, Lake 69 is a scenic day hike of 8 miles with 2600 feet gain to an elevation of 15,180 feet or 4600 m. From Huaraz, drive 2.5 to 3 hours one way to the Lake 69 trailhead. Andes, South America.

View Tom Dempsey's images of Huaraz and day hikes to Cordillera Negra and Lake Churup, in Peru, South America. Huaraz, (population 120,000 in 2007) was founded in 1574 in Callejon de Huaylas Valley. Huaraz is Peru's center of climbing, hiking, snowboarding and is also the main tourist center of the Ancash region. For a good view of the Cordillera Blanca and a good acclimatization outing, bus to Callan Punta (a 4225-meter pass) in the Cordillera Negra then hike 14 km (9 miles) down to Huaraz. Another good altitude acclimatization hike is 630 meters vertically up a steep trail to Lake/Lago Churup (4465 meters elevation).

View Tom Dempsey's images of Lima, Peru, South America.

View Tom Dempsey's images of Chavin de Huantar ruins in Peru, South America. As a long day trip from Huaraz, take a bus over a scenic 15,000-foot pass to visit the ancient ruins of Chavín de Huántar at 10,300 feet elevation at the bottom of Cordillera Blanca’s eastern slopes halfway between the Amazon forest and coastal plains, in the Department of Ancash. 3000 years ago, the innovative Chavin builders engineered the Castillo with underground ducts for natural air conditioning. The most striking feature is the Peidra del Lanzón (“Stone of Lanzón”) or “Lanzon de Chavin“, a 13-foot-high carved white granite stele monument at the meeting point of four underground tunnels in the Castillo (or castle). The Lanzon, the supreme deity of Chavin de Huantar, intertwines the head of the feline deity of Chavin de Huantar and the human body of the shaman of the pre-Chavin period. In 1985, UNESCO listed Chavín de Huántar as a World Heritage Site. The advanced Chavin culture of 1000 BC to 300 BC greatly influenced all later civilizations in Peru, including the famous Inca Empire of a millennia later, 1430-1572 AD. The farming city of Chavin became populous by controlling important trade routes which crossed from coast to interior and from north-to-south along the cordillera. Modern artist Pablo Picasso remarked, “Of all the ancient cultures that I admire, Chavín is the one that surprises me most. To tell the turth, it has been the inspiration for much of my work.”